Design is an iterative process. This post will go into a bit of the design process and visioning for the Great Lakes Permaculture Portal.

Snow helps aid in observing animal flows across a landscape.

There have been a few small changes since we launched the website yesterday. First, all of the links have been changed to open in a new tab for easier navigation. Additionally we added ccpermaculture blog at the request of Josh Schultz and Van-Kal Permaculture at the behest of Pj Chmiel.

PJ also commented that, “‘Great Lakes PC Portal’ is a bit of a misnomer if this site only focuses on the SE corner of Michigan…I came here thinking it was something to do with the larger region (WI, IL, IN, MI, OH, ON, etc).”

We agree with PJ, so we’d like to explain our design a little more fully. We intend to serve the full range of the Great Lakes with our content. The Great Lakes Bio-Region is a large geographical area with a population of over 30 million. We chose to focus on Southeast Michigan first to focus our energies on a smaller area. By concentrating more energy on a smaller area we will be able to develop a management system for the calendar and newsletter that will provide pertinent information without being overwhelming.

Over time we will either include a larger geographical range in the calendar, or create individual calendars for different portions of the bio-region. We will know what makes the most sense once we have a stronger understanding of the work flows involved. Right now we know that even for the region we have chosen to focus on, we have not fully covered the groups and upcoming events. This is why we ask you to please let us know what we are missing. Also, we will post links to community and other groups outside of Southeast Michigan if you send them to us, though they may not make it into the newsletter yet.

Thank you! We hope you find the website useful, and with your help we can make it even more valuable to others.

Future entries will further include new content including interviews and further explain GLPP’s design pattern.